Sunday, October 23, 2005

Lists and their disappointments

TIME's 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to present list, found here, has stirred up some debates and questions all over the Internet.

I found several of the books on their list to be in the correct place: William Golding's Lord of the Flies, William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Others I found out of place: George Orwell's Animal Farm (just not as wonderful as 1984 was), Richard Wright's Native Son, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (overated in my opinion).

You can find an interesting discussion here about what should and what shouldn't have made the list.

The Morning News has posted Amazon 1-Star reviews from their own site about several of the books from the list. Reading someone trashing Toni Morrison's Beloved for its graffic nature boggles my mind; that's what made the story so good. Another reviewer compared George Orwell's 1984 to Harry Potter, trashing the story harshly.